Itami
by TheSlashBunny
Summary: An injured shinobi. A life-debt repaid. *Rated M to be safe mostly for language and violence*
1. Prologue

It was dark. Pitch black, if one wished to be specific. He couldn't see anything. Were his eyes even open? If they weren't, then he certainly couldn't do anything about it. His eyelids, if closed, weren't opening. He could hear vague sounds, but nothing specific. It was all too fuzzy, just like his mind. _What happened? Am I dead? Where -?_

His thoughts were cut off by the pain – the searing pain that made him feel like he was burning alive from the inside. Some detached, rational part of his brain pointed out that if he was in such pain than he definitely was alive. He felt as though his entire body were being stabbed with millions of long, sharp needles. But his hands, the feeling in his hands was worse than anything he could imagine. It was worse than even the pain he was feeling coursing through the rest of his nerves. Even if he could move his limbs, he certainly wasn't going to try now. He couldn't feel his hands.

He could hear a new sound though. A muffled sound that stopped when he took a breath. Then he realized. He was screaming.


	2. Chapter 1

痛み

Itami – (n) pain; ache; sore; grief; distress

* * *

It was dark. Pitch black, if one wished to be specific. He immediately tried opening his eyes, praying it would work and that the pain wouldn't start again. Hmm, now it was slightly less dark. _Nighttime?_ His vision was blurry. He must've had his eyes closed for some time. Where was he? His brain was still so fuzzy…

His vision started to clear even though his mind wouldn't quite focus as well as his eyes. He still couldn't see much. He was on his back. He could hear breathing that wasn't his own. Who was there? Should he try to turn his head and look around? He didn't want the pain to start again. Avoiding that horrible pain was his main goal. The longer he attempted to think, the more tired he became, the fuzzier his mind was. Before he could decide if it was worth the risk, sleep claimed him.

* * *

The next time he opened his eyes, it wasn't dark. Wherever he was had been filled with a light that can only be found in the early morning. As the sleep cleared his vision, he became aware of two things. Well, one feeling and one color; a dull ache that he could feel through the haze of his mind and white, lots of white. He blinked to clear his vision more. _Ok, pain, lying on my back and a ridiculous amount of white. Hospital? Where?_

He hadn't noticed before but he was propped up slightly. As he became more aware, he surveyed his surroundings. He was definitely in a standard hospital bed in a private hospital room. A window was to his right with a chair beneath it. A wall with a table under a generic floral painting was across from the foot of his bed. A wall was to his right with a door in it and several cabinets along it. With effort, he turned his head in that direction and saw a water jug and glass set on a small table.

Water. He was thirsty. How long had it been since he'd had something to drink? His mouth felt drier than the desert in Suna. He reached out to pour himself a glass. Or at least he tried to. When he realized that his arms weren't working, he looked down.

He was tucked in up to his chin. An IV line trailed under the sheet, presumably to attach to his arm. _Painkillers. Explains why I can't feel much. _Before he could try to move again, the door slid open.

"I see you're awake." The pink-haired medic walked towards him. _Sakura. Sakura means Konoha. What the hell happened? Why am I here?_ He tried to ask his questions but they came out as unintelligible, raspy grunts. _Smooth, man. How long have I been out?_ Sakura's smiled widened as she walked over to pour him a glass of water.

"Look, Kankuro, I know that you enjoy my company, but we have to stop meeting like this," she joked. She propped him up further into a seated position before holding the glass to his lips. She allowed him to swirl a few sips around his mouth before slowly helping drink about half of the glass's contents. "And as much I love to see that muscular body of yours, I'd rather not be patching it up."

"And here I thought I was doing you a favor. I doubt it's every day that you get to work on a hottie like me." Kankuro's voice was still raspy, but he also managed a weak grin. Sakura merely rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll save you the trouble. 'When are you going to leave this village of sissies and visit Suna, where you can find some real men?'" She did quite a good imitation of him. She even managed the leer that he always gave her. Kankuro quickly found that he was too tired to laugh. Looking more serious, Sakura sat on the edge of his bed. "How are the painkillers working? Do we need to up the dosage? Any specific areas in worse pain than others?"

She let him take a moment to assess. "It's working pretty well. Everything aches equally, but it's not too bad." _Certainly not like it was._

"Can you move anything other than your head?"

He was about to say something dirty (like he usually would have, even in this situation), but he realized: _What the hell kinda question is that?_ He felt panic start to rise as he realized how badly he must've been hurt. Sakura watched silently as he managed some weak shifts of his major limbs. She pulled up the bottom of the bedding to see if he could move his toes, which he thankfully could. But then…

"Sakura… I can't move my hands…" He was definitely panicking now. A small, detached voice in his head was vaguely surprised that he had the energy to panic. Kankuro tried to shift the blankets off of his arms. _They're still there, right?! _ "Sakura. Why can't I move my hands?!"

Sakura had carefully schooled her features to the calm, yet caring, look that she used with her patients. She pulled the covers down and spread them neatly across his lap, revealing a broad chest with several newly healed wounds and two heavily bandaged hands. Kankuro ignored his other injuries. _My hands…_

"We're not entirely sure what happened. You were obviously in a fight, but what's confusing…" She paused, as though trying to think of what words to use. He looked so distraught, so broken. He was her friend and it was hard to be clinical and objective. "It's almost like… Even Tsunade has never seen anything like it before. We had to bring in a Hyuuga to find out what was wrong." _A Hyuuga? What…?_

"It's like you've been electrocuted, but through your chakra system. The entry point must've been your hands. It's where… there's… the worst damage." Sakura finished in a whisper. Kankuro's features had become more and more set as she spoke, more and more cold.

In a hard, yet shaking voice, he asked, "How much damage?"

"We healed them the best that we could, but all we can do now is wait." He didn't have to ask what they would need to wait for. Sakura – precise, perfectionistic Sakura who was always blunt and open with him – was being vague. That was enough to tell him what he needed to know.

It would be a miracle if he could use his hands again.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter – The arrival of Temari


	3. Chapter 2

傷み 【いたみ】 (n) grief; distress; damage; bruise

Kankuro didn't speak for the rest of the day. Any questions that nurses or Sakura asked were answered with nothing more than a nod or a shake of his head. When 11 pm had passed and Kankuro still hadn't even closed his eyes, Sakura decided to give him a sedative to help him sleep. She turned off the lights and left the room that night only after she was sure he was sleeping. As she walked down the corridor to head home, she prayed that his brother or sister would arrive quickly.

When Kankuro next woke, the room was bright enough that it had to be late morning. He knew he had visitors before he opened his eyes. He could smell sand and wind and when he opened his eyes, he saw the people that he most wanted, and most dreaded, to see. "Temari? How did you get here so fast?" Damn it, his voice was still raspy. "Gaara? Was it ok for you to leave?" Temari, smiling, shifted from her chair to the edge of his bed, but Gaara maintained his position looking out the window.

"We actually got in really early in the morning, but a nurse said you were sleeping, and frankly, we were dead tired."

"You mean, _you_ were dead tired."

"Shut it, Gaara! Not everyone is as fast as you, you damn insomniac!" By the time Temari turned back to Kankuro from yelling at her other little brother, her smile was firmly back in place. "And what do you mean so fast? You've been in here for 3 days already, there was no way in hell that we weren't going to run the entire way, and it only takes three days to get here from Suna if you don't rush! And we would've left earlier, but the council…" Temari glanced at the Kazekage warily, "was being… how should I put this…" Gaara's baritone seemed loud in the quiet room.

"Annoying? Troublesome? Was willfully provoking homicide?"

"Gaara, they weren't doing it just to piss you off!" Temari turned back to Kankuro who was now quite confused. Gaara hadn't mentioned wanting to kill the council in several years. Maim a few specific members, yes. Murder them all? Not in a while. Temari continued. "That group of rogue ninjas managed to make an attack within a mile of the city on the day we heard you were injured and the council decided that Gaara had to stay in case they made a move on the village itself."

Kankuro couldn't believe it. He would've been outraged if he hadn't been so tired. And drugged. _What the hell did Sakura give him last night? _"Gaara, why are you here then?" Gaara turned to him. If Kankuro hadn't gotten closer to his brother in the past few years, he never would have even noticed the _How much medication are you on?_ look that Gaara was currently giving him. To an outsider, he would've looked like his usual, mildly annoyed self.

"I handled the situation and then we left." He turned back to the window. Temari snorted.

"By 'handled the situation,' he means that he caught two of the thieves and impaled them, alive, on stakes just outside of the village gates as warnings to their comrades." Gaara looked smug.

"It certainly convinced the council to let me leave." Kankuro almost laughed, the humor helping to clear his head. He could just picture the looks of fear on the council members' faces when his baby brother told them that he would then be leaving. Well, on everyone's but Baki's. Hell, Baki had probably looked proud. Or at least amused.

After a few moments of Temari chuckling and Kankuro trying to find the energy to, Gaara's face turned serious. "Kankuro, what happened?" Leave it to Gaara to be blunt and remind Kankuro of what he so desperately wanted to forget. He didn't want to remember where he was or why he was there. He wanted to pretend that his conversation with Sakura had never happened. Kankuro didn't answer, instead turning his head to look at the refilled pitcher of water to his right.

Temari placed a comforting hand on his thigh. "Kankuro…"

No. He couldn't tell them what she'd said. They weren't just his family. His sister was a superior-ranking jounin and his brother… His brother was the leader of the village which relied on Kankuro's skills – on Kankuro's _hands_ – to help protect their people. He couldn't tell them. He couldn't bring himself to say it. He couldn't even think the words… No. His brother would have to order him if he wanted an answer.

Gaara and Temari just looked at him for a little while, hoping he would answer. Sakura hadn't been in earlier and the nurse on duty had suggested that they try to get him to talk about it. Gaara knew that he could give his brother an order, but looking at him, seeing how small he seemed sitting in that bed… He couldn't do it. Kankuro was his brother before he was his subordinate. They both had worked so hard over the past few years to start a relationship worthy of the term "brothers" and Kankuro had done so much to help him, not only with his position as Kazekage, but with his attempts to regain his humanity. So Gaara decided to find Sakura.

* * *

Temari sat quietly with Kankuro while Gaara was out of the room. It hurt her to look at him sitting there, staring at his hands, looking as though he was trying desperately not to cry. She didn't know that as he sat there the words going through his mind were just that – _Don't cry. You can't cry. Don't cry…_

When Gaara reentered the room, closing the door softly, stepping over to the bed, around the fan and gourd propped against the wall, Temari couldn't read his face. It seemed just as impassive as ever. While she had gotten better at reading his minute facial changes, she couldn't read anything at this moment. Kankuro couldn't either. And it terrified him. _What's he going to say? What's he going to do? I'm useless if I don't have my hands – if I don't have my chakra. I don't… I can't… No! Don't cry!_ Kankuro continued to stare at his hands as his brother sat down on the edge of his bed, across from Temari. _Don't cry!_ Gaara looked at his brother for a second before reaching out. He pulled him into his arms and held him there.

Kankuro started crying.

* * *

Temari wasn't sure what to do. Two things had just occurred; one she hadn't seen since they were children, and one she had never seen, though she had hoped she eventually would. The first was Kankuro crying. The last time he had cried was when… Well, she wasn't sure when, but she knew it hadn't happened since they started at the Academy. The second… Her baby brother Gaara – the cold Kazekage – had just shown affection. He had hugged his brother and was now holding him as his big brother sobbed in his arms, bandaged hands lying uselessly in his lap. She knew their relationship had greatly improved, but to see this… And then it hit her.

_Gaara_ was **_hugging_ **_Kankuro_ as _Kankuro **cried**_in the _hospital_. Things weren't going to be okay, as she'd been telling herself on the entire run from Suna to Konoha. Her little brother obviously wasn't going to die, but that didn't mean that his livelihood wasn't going to be taken away.

Thoughts ran through her mind as she watched her brothers. Thoughts about her brother's injuries. What would he do without his puppets? If he couldn't use his hands at all, could he even teach? What would he do if he wasn't a ninja? The village needed him.

But it didn't matter. None of that mattered. All that mattered was that he was alive and that he would cope. She and Gaara would be there to help him and that's all that mattered.

She scooted closer on the bed and wrapped her arms around both of her brothers. Her voice could barely be heard over Kankuro's cries.

"Don't worry, Kanky. We're here. We're together. And that's all that matters."


	4. Chapter 3

The rest of the day the Sand Siblings spent talking between Kankuro dozing in and out of consciousness. They talked about everything and nothing. They talked about the village and what Kankuro had missed. They talked about how Kankuro could take as much time as he needed to heal and Gaara promised that he would deal with council. Well, it wasn't so much of a promise of forcing cooperation as a threat of violence towards the council should they even think about rushing him. Sakura made sure that the three were left alone as much as possible that day, only being disturbed for food and the necessary checks of Kankuro's IV line and vitals.

Towards evening, Kankuro started feeling more pain. While this was most likely caused by the amount of energy he had used while crying and the healing wounds that his shuddering sobs had aggravated, it was decided by Sakura that raising his dose of pain medication wouldn't harm him. Kankuro fell asleep that night with Temari's fingers running soothingly through his hair.

* * *

When Kankuro woke, he was surprised to find that it was evening. Again. _That woman needs to stop drugging me._ _Damn pink-haired pill pusher…_ He couldn't stay angry though, as he opened his eyes and realized that his body felt significantly better; he was still wicked tired, but there was less pain. That woman definitely knew what she was talking about, which was probably why she was always assigned as the chief medic for the Kazekage's only brother.

"Mornin' sleepyhead," Temari spoke softly, "You've had visitors." Kankuro looked around getting more surprised the more coherent he was. He voiced his immediate thoughts of, "Who the fuck sent me all of these flowers?"

There were arrangements of every size and color scheme. Bright, pale, warm, cool; flowers that were familiar as well as foreign.

"Well," Temari started, smiling. "Those," pointing to the table up against the wall opposite his bed, "you got for being the Kazekage's brother. These," she stood from her chair and gestured towards the bouquets on the two tables flanking his headboard, "you got for being Kankuro. There's one from Naruto, Shikamaru and his team, Sakura… Most of the shinobi our age, in fact, sent them or stopped by to drop something off. Ino dropped off the first one at six in the morning and people have been poking their noses in almost non-stop until dinner time."

_All of this in one day?_ Kankuro could barely believe it.

"Hey Temari. Who's that one from?" Kankuro pointed at the only vase that didn't have any ribbons or bows tied around it. It was a simple arrangement. He wasn't sure he would call it a bouquet. It had a couple of reed-like brown things and what looked like some dried grasses as filler. It had some dull orange-colored small flowers and just one brilliant deep-red and gold flower in the center.

Temari picked up the card attached to it and read:

_Kankuro,_

_I wanted to get you something that said "Get Well" so I had Ino help me put together something more manly than all that pastel girly shit I saw in your room earlier. Hope you like it._

_-Kiba_

Both the siblings were chuckling by the time Temari was done reading. Though he was amused, Kankuro couldn't help but start to drift off again. When his eyes closed, a soft smile on his face, Temari moved that particular arrangement closer. She wanted him to smile like that again when he woke.

* * *

A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! I had legitimate claims on my time and couldn't work on it (like a semester-length class shoved into three weeks... I got an A though!) However, at least I felt guilty enough to give you two chapters in one day!! I don't think that it'll take this long for me to update again... Again, I'm sorry to those of you who were waiting so patiently (or impatiently). Big thanks to my beta, the-yaoi-squirrel, who beta'd both within 24 hours!!


	5. Chapter 4

Kankuro spent the next few days either sleeping or spending time with his siblings. He'd convinced Temari (through much negotiation and agreeing to things that he would surely regret later) to keep anyone else from visiting him. It was bad enough that the people he knew from Konoha had seen his pitiful state while he was unconscious.

After his siblings had been with him a week, Kankuro had begun to show, in Sakura's words, "some improvement." She'd been quite excited by the fact that he could lift his arm off the bed - on his own - during her afternoon rounds. Kankuro had attempted to lift his arm on her orders, which was no easy feat while on painkillers, chakra-suppressants (a drug that the pink-haired physician had successfully avoided explaining the necessity of), and not having moved a muscle in approximately ten days. It'd been two inches. Two measly inches of movement and he'd already felt tired. Temari and Sakura had looked like they were about to jump with joy; Kankuro had merely felt as bored and annoyed as Gaara looked.

By the time he was prescribed simple physical therapy "exercises" that made him feel like an idiot, his "progress" had apparently been reported to the Suna Council and the morons had decided to try to convince the Kazekage that it was time for him to return home. Gaara had looked like he wanted to kill someone and Temari had actually followed him when he'd stalked out of Kankuro's hospital room a few minutes after speaking with the messenger. Kankuro had sat quietly with the shinobi messenger for an hour, amusing himself by doing his best to make the poor man as uncomfortable as possible. He quickly discovered that leers - and other suggestive facial expressions - freaked the man out far more quickly than glares. When Gaara returned and saved the sand nin from further psychological trauma, it was with a simple message: Gaara was now on an official state visit and the council could continue their attempts at the risk of pissing off Naruto himself.

The next afternoon, Kankuro found himself alone for the first time since his siblings had arrived. Gaara was meeting with Naruto, since they had to at least pretend that this was a legitimate visit even if Kankuro was pretty sure that their "meetings" consisted of eating ramen and patting themselves on the backs about already having such a strong and effective alliance, and Temari was off pestering Konoha's resident genius. It was an afternoon of peace and quiet - and Kankuro hated it. He knew that the time his siblings had with him was coming to an end. They'd need to head home and Kankuro was pretty sure that Sakura wasn't about to let him leave. He was even willing to acknowledge that his favorite bubblegum-haired tease would be the medical nin who could give him the best chance at full recovery. But he'd be in Konoha - alone. Which meant that he would have more time to think than could possibly be good for his sanity.

After the original questioning about what had happened in that near-fatal fight, Sakura had made sure that no one asked him any more questions about it. While he appreciated that, it didn't mean that he could stop thinking about it. He wanted to know how that son of a bitch that he'd been fighting had managed to do this to him. It didn't make any sense. Thinking back to the fight, there was no way that idiot Cloud nin had the skill, the intelligence, or the necessary chakra supply to do such extensive damage at the _end_ of a fight that the nin had been _losing_. Gaara had informed him that Naruto was personally looking into it and had some of Konoha's best minds trying to figure out how such a jutsu could work. Apparently even the prodigy Neji Hyuuga was getting frustrated, and he'd been the one to see the original damage. It boggled the mind. And when you literally have _nothing _to do but _think_, Kankuro had decided that being boggled was not a pleasant state of being. And he knew that once his siblings left, he'd have more time to think than he wanted. He didn't want to think about how annoyed he was about being beaten. He didn't want to think about how he felt like such a failure. And most of all, he didn't want to think about how scared he was. Scared that he'd never be able to use his hands again. Scared that he'd never be able to use his chakra again. Scared that whatever Sakura was so skillfully keeping silent about would be more terrifying than that his chakra system had been fried like bad wiring.

In addition to knowing that Gaara and Temari would eventually have to head home, Kankuro also knew that before they left, Temari would - and he'd be lucky if she left it at this - attempt to convince him to allow their friends in Konoha to visit him in the hospital. They'd be able to keep him company and keep his mind off of his injuries and his long recovery ahead. And his siblings knew him well enough to know that Kankuro was almost desperate to keep his mind occupied. It would even have been glaringly obvious yesterday, when he'd indulged both Sakura _and_ Temari in gossip. And he _really_ didn't care about Ino's or Matsuri's latest drama. In fact, after that all-too-enlightening session, he'd decided that he would perfectly fine if he never had to see those two overly emotional little freaks again. And yet, he, the great Kankuro, had sunk so low as gossiping like a preteen girl in order to keep from thinking about anything deeper than Ino's latest dating disaster.

Kankuro was painfully aware of how distracting the Rookie Nine could be, especially when they were trying. But there were two things holding him back. It wasn't that he didn't want to see them; he didn't want them to see him. When they'd visited while he had been unconscious, he'd been spared from having to see the looks on their faces when they saw him lying in a hospital bed. Awake, he wouldn't be able to miss the subtle glances at his heavily bandaged hands (which he'd been doing his best to not look at himself - it was too depressing); he'd be unable to avoid the looks of concern and, god forbid, pity. And he'd be unable to ignore the unasked questions that would be hanging in the air, the very questions that the presence of friends were supposed to keep him from pondering: _what happened? How long will you be in here? Will you be able to use your hands again? Will your chakra system ever recover?_ Every shinobi he knew had been wounded enough times to know not to ask such things aloud. But they also had been hospitalized enough times to know that the injured could see it in the eyes and on the faces of visitors. And Kankuro desperately didn't want to break down in front of a friend the way that he had in front of his brother and sister. He still had a small amount of pride left and he intended to keep it.

The second reason that he didn't want visitors could labeled as shallow vanity by others: he didn't want anyone else to see him without his face paint. The thought made him feel like a chick, but it was an important consideration all the same. He had some consolation that most of the flowers in his room had been delivered by Ino or her family's delivery boy, a civilian that Kankuro didn't think he'd ever met. And the nurses were the same ones who cared for him every time he ended up in the Konoha Hospital. But he wanted to keep the number of people who'd seen his actual face to a minimum. It wasn't that he thought he was ugly. He knew he wasn't; the reactions of the nurses he flirted with told him enough about his appeal to the female population to feed his ego for years. And it wasn't that he felt he needed to keep up an air of mystery the way that Kakashi seemed to. He'd been out drinking with enough of his potential visitors to have lost enough shame and enough secrets to destroy any delusion of mystery. And he was well aware that it was nearly impossible to seem intimidating while lying in a hospital bed, bandaged and hooked up to IVs.

The problem was that he felt naked without his facepaint. And while he'd been physically naked around some of the people from Konoha for various reasons, he'd done his best to always have his paints on. They were literally his mask. They helped him hide his true emotions; they helped him maintain the badass, lecherous, jokester front that he presented to almost everyone he knew. It was hard enough to flirt and joke with Sakura without them on. It'd be even harder to put on a strong, brave face with the others, who hadn't seen him literally naked and near death. He certainly couldn't put his paint on himself and he wasn't about to sit down and attempt to explain to his sister where each stroke should go - he knew he'd end up looking like an abstract, post-modern nightmare if he even tried to do that. His siblings had already seen him without masks of any kind, at his best and his worst, and Sakura had treated his body to an extent that she knew him in a more physically intimate way than anyone, even more than if his joking attempts at seducing her had ever actually succeeded. The others he knew in Konoha were practically strangers compared to those three. He felt vulnerable enough with limited movement and a distinct lack of chakra. If he'd ever needed to hide his true feelings, if he'd ever need help with concealing his vulnerability, it was now - when the softest sigh would make him shatter.

* * *

_A/N: I'm SO sorry!! Life got in the way of writing!! Here's number 4 and I'm already working on chapter 5.  
You all should profusely thank the-yaoi-squirrel for being awesome enough to beta three (count 'em, THREE) **different** fics in **one** day!!  
You can find the other two on my profile - and feel free to consider them part of my apology for disappearing off of the face of the earth.  
_


	6. Chapter 5 Both parts!

_(Part One - same as previously posted)_

The night after Kankuro's 20th day in the hospital – a personal record he'd rather not have – Kankuro found out precisely why he was on chakra suppressants. Due to some mix-up with the night's nursing staff, the injection was never given. As the unknowing shinobi lay sleeping, his chakra supplies were slowly and steadily building.

And so was the pain.

At 3:36:03AM, Kankuro awoke to the unfortunately familiar feeling of fire coursing through his veins. At 3:36:09AM, Kankuro began screaming.

It wasn't until 3:45:27AM that the correct injection and a sedative had been administered and Kankuro finally fell into a restless slumber at 4:00:00AM.

By 5:30:00AM, two nurses had been suspended and would likely need therapy after an encounter with an extremely angry Kazekage. Temari was more reluctant than ever to return to Suna and a rather rumpled but wide-awake Sakura was attempting to explain what had happened to the two conscious Sand Siblings and an equally rumpled Naruto.

"It won't happen again." Sakura tried to sound calm, but Gaara was unnervingly quiet and staring intently at his brother's sleeping face as though looking for the slightest hint of discomfort.

"Damn right, it won't! How the hell can we leave him here?" Temari was only barely succeeding in keeping her voice down, but her fear was plain in her eyes. "I barely even understand what just happened! What's going on, Sakura?"

Sakura looked uneasily at her patient, trying to switch into what Naruto called 'Doctor Mode', but finding it difficult to be objective. "As you know, Kankuro's chakra system was seriously damaged. And… as you also know, chakra is needed to heal our injuries." She took a deep breath to calm herself. His screams were still echoing in her head. "The problem we're having in treating Kankuro…" All eyes jumped to her at the word 'problem'.

Temari's voice was strangely quiet. "Problem?... What do you mean problem?" Sakura cleared her throat.

"Kankuro's chakra is further damaging his channels. At least at their normal level. The chakra suppressants were keeping it to a very low concentration. So far, it's been enough to facilitate healing while not being too much to cause more damage." Gaara's quiet baritone filled the silence that Sakura left behind, asking the question they were all thinking.

"And after this morning…?" Sakura met his gaze head on.

"This morning's incident was a set back." Temari's anger was back.

"Incident? One of your nurses screwed up and hurt my brother more!" She turned to Gaara. "Gaara, we can't just leave him here. He hates the hospital, Sakura can't be with him all the time," she turned back to Sakura, "and I'm sorry, but I simply don't trust your nurses anymore." Sakura nodded her understanding – after this morning she was considering a serious overhaul of shift-change procedure. They only had to wait a moment for Gaara's voice to offer his response.

"We are expected back in Suna in four days time. That is non-negotiable." He glanced at Sakura before continuing. "Regardless of what occurred this morning, Konoha is still the best possible place for his care. Moving him to Suna would be foolish. We have no other choice but to leave him in the hospital." Gaara's teal eyes returned to his brother's face before snapping up to meet Naruto's pensive, yet uncertain, look as he spoke for the first time that morning:

"What if he didn't have to stay in the hospital?"

~*~ _(Part Two - the new stuff!)_

Kankuro awoke late afternoon. He was groggy and could still feel the remnants of the hell he'd been through that morning. He ached all over his body, but when he gingerly attempted to move his limbs, he could've cried in relief to find that they were still almost as cooperative as they'd been when he went to sleep the night before.

He let out a soft sigh and opened his eyes, unsurprised to find his brother and sister seated anxiously by his bedside. Temari was the first to speak, asking how he was feeling, and she visibly relaxed when he offered her a small smile. She didn't return the gesture, however.

"Kankuro, we've been talking…" His smile vanished. This couldn't be good. "We know you don't like hospitals – "

"No shit." Temari's eyebrow quirked up menacingly. Okay, snarky interruptions – even as coping mechanisms – were apparently not welcome. Jeez, only his sister would threaten someone in a hospital bed. Well, and his brother, too. He vaguely wondered what that said about his family.

"_But as I was about to say_, we can't take you with us to Suna." _Fuck._ "It would be too risky while you're still recovering." He listened quietly as Temari explained what had happened that morning. Kankuro didn't know if it was comforting or even more unnerving to know what was actually happening in his body. Was that the only thing Sakura hadn't told him? He trusted her with his life, always had and always would, and so he'd kept quiet earlier, but how could he know what else was she mistakenly trying to protect him from?

"Naruto had an idea, if you're willing to agree…" _Dammit_. No matter how worthy Naruto had proven himself as both a good friend and an excellent Kage, Kankuro still cringed at an idea from Naruto. Usually his plans in the personal sphere ended one of two ways for whomever was the target: pain or humiliation. In this instance, it could be either… "It would remove you from the hospital and into the private care of the Inuzuka clan." …Or both. His mouth struggled to connect to his brain.

"What?" _Kiba's family?_ The small, detached voice that had been expressing itself more often lately was quickly drowned out, as it attempted to list the reasons why getting out of the hospital was a good thing, by a much larger portion of his brain starting the mantra of: _ Oh no. No, no, no, no. Not Kiba's family. No!_ "You can't be serious."

"Kankuro, several members of the Inuzuka family have medical training, and Sakura would be close if something went wrong," Oh god, Temari was using her big-sister-knows-best voice. It made him want to vomit. "And Kiba would be there to keep you company."

The small voice piped up again, _His flowers were the only ones you actually liked_, before quickly being drowned out again by his pride, _You can't let him see you like this…_

"No." His siblings didn't look surprised. Temari looked exasperated and Gaara looked… well, annoyed, but that was nothing new.

"Kankuro…" There was that big sister voice again.

"I said, no. I'm not staying with them." His whole body had tensed. There were several emotions flowing through him that could have caused this, and a few that he wasn't willing to address, but the overriding one was fear – fear mixed with a very strong and very unwelcome feeling of vulnerability.

Gaara stood, his annoyance openly visible. "Kankuro, we are both needed back in Suna and are unwilling to leave you in the care of the staff here. The Inuzuka's would be able to provide – " He knew it was stupid to interrupt his brother, even when he was in a relatively good mood and not tired and worn as he obviously was from this morning's ordeal, but his mouth seemed to listen more to his sense of pride than his sense of self-preservation.

"No. And I don't care if you think I'm being unreasonable." Teal eyes flashed.

Gaara drew himself up to his full height and looked down on Kankuro with the eyes of a Kage, not the eyes of a brother. "Do you mean to deny Inuzuka-san the honor of not only having the brother of the Kazekage as a house-guest, but also the right to repay the blood debt that she owes to this family for her son's life?"

The voice of his pride went silent, mid-chant. _Well, shit. Did he have to put it that way? _The Inuzuka's had never repaid Kankuro for saving Kiba all those years ago, and he knew that must weigh heavily on a mind as proud as Tsume Inuzuka's. It was probably what had given Naruto the idea to begin with. _That smug little ass he called a brother just had to make it about honor, didn't he? _And as the Kazekage's brother, as Gaara had so tactfully put it, he was duty-bound to acknowledge such a debt. He took a deep breath before tersely responding, "Of course not." Gaara's eyebrow raised, obviously expecting more to that statement.

"You may inform Inuzuka-sama that I am honored to accept her gracious offer of hospitality." His words were diplomatic, but forced – he was answering his superior, his Kage, not his little brother.

Gaara looked triumphant, while Temari just chuckled. _Wait a minute… Why the fuck is she laughing?_ As though reading his mind, Temari's laughter grew.

"Good. I was hoping I wouldn't have to play the 'big sister guilt' card." _Oh hell no._ "And if that failed, Gaara was just going to order you." _Oh fuck no!_ He didn't know who to glare at first.

"Why the hell did you even ask me then?" Great, even Gaara looked amused now. Temari answered, her eyes smiling.

"Meh. Just thought you might like to at least pretend you had a choice. Congratulations! You chose correctly!" _That's it – superior rank, my ass. This is a family matter now._

"Fuck you both."

* * *

_A/N: Okay, so Kiba is being difficult, so he's not going to show up until Chapter 6... but that chapter is going so much better than this one, so it won't take as long. Look forward to awkward moments. XD Muahaha!_

_I hope that everyone gets notified that I changed this... I'm not entirely sure how that works, so I'll try to mention this at the start of the next chapter, too..._


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